Denis Villeneuve Says ‘Dune’ Sequel Will See Zendaya’s Chani Become The Protagonist

Legendary‘s upcoming film “Dune” is only part one of a two-part story, as the screenwriters and director Denis Villeneuve purposefully split the first novel from author Frank Herbert into two feature films. We have to assume the reasoning is to make it more palatable to audiences after David Lynch‘s 1984 version and the Sci-Fi series told the same story before but radically different ways concerning run times. Making two movies seems to be the balance between the two previous incarnations.

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While speaking with Italian magazine Il Venerdi (spotted by Secrets of Dune on Twitter), the filmmaker briefly mentioned plans for “Dune: Part Two” (reportedly being written by Jon Spaihts) that will see Zendaya‘s Chani become a protagonist of the second film.

“I can’t wait to shoot the second part of Dune to get [Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya] back together. Knowing that in the next chapter, Zendaya will be the protagonist of the story,” is one of the Villeneuve quotes (though note, apparently translated by a Dune fansite).

This makes sense as “Dune: Part Two” has seemingly been in the works from the very beginning. We’ll see a huge shift from the forces of House Atreides in “Dune” to Paul and Jessica living/fighting among the Fremen in the second half of the story against House Harkonnen. Showing the second film from a Fremen perspective could also amplify Paul’s rise to a religious figure on Arrakis that has the local population rally around him against The Harkonnen and even The Emperor (yet to be seen).

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The studio is already developing a spinoff series with “Dune: The Sisterhood” for HBO Max with a newly hired showrunner Diane Ademu-John after Spaihts was pulled off the show to focus on a script for “Dune: Part Two.”

READ MORE: Scott Z. Burns Is Also A Creative Exec On The ‘Dune’ HBO Max Spin-Off Series

Like with J.R.R. Tolkien‘s hefty Middle-Earth saga, Frank Herbert wrote six dense novels before his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson flushed out the fantasy universe further with even more books. Legendary has plenty of source material to make many movies and shows if they desire to. Still, they’ll have to see how audiences react to the first installment before we can seriously consider them moving beyond these two pics.

READ MORE: Director Denis Villeneuve Says ‘Dune’ Will Be At Least Two Films

Franchise talk might be premature, and Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049” clearly had those same plans and died on the vine after its commercial failure. Still, it’s worth noting that “Star Wars” was directly influenced by the book with technology and multiple character/plot points being lifted for George Lucas‘ films. Having a more mature sci-fi series of films to counter what Lucasfilm is doing isn’t the worst idea imaginable, the costs involved and audience appeal will be the main hurdles for them.

READ MORE: Jason Momoa Describes His ‘Dune’ Character As “Han Solo-Esque”

“Dune” will officially be released in theaters and HBO Max on October 22, barring any further delays that could happen in the coming weeks due to the Delta variant. Before that, we’ll hear word about it from the Venice International Film Festival, and it’ll also be playing at TIFF in a smaller capacity.